Hyo Joon Jang, a 19-year-old rookie from South Korea, entered the Epson Tour Championship ranked 11th on the money list with $74,202, just $1,076 behind No. 10 Alexa Pano. Jang’s T-11 finish was enough to push her into the 10th spot, forcing Pano to head to Q-Series to earn her LPGA card.
The top 10 players on the Ascensus Race for the Card earned LPGA status for the 2023 season. The top three players – Linnea Strom, Xiaowen Yin and Lucy Li – had their cards locked up coming into Daytona Beach, Florida.
For the second time in three years, Bailey Tardy missed her card by one spot. In 2020, Tardy missed her card by $343. She held the lead on Sunday at the Tour Championship on the strength of five birdies in six holes on the front nine. A back-nine 37, however, dropped her down to third place. This time, the former Georgia standout missed the 10th spot by $1,765.
Jaravee Boonchant birdied the 18th to win her first Epson Tour title at LPGA International and moved up to 12th on the money list. While it wasn’t enough to earn her LPGA card, the former Duke player will get to skip the second stage of Q-School.
Find out more about the card winners for the 2022 Epson Tour season:
Linnea Strom (courtesy Epson Tour)
Linnea Strom was Rookie of the Year on the Epson Tour in 2018 but lost her LPGA card in 2021. The Swedish player will return to the LPGA next year, however, with her confidence brimming after topping the money list with $119,190 to earn Player of the Year honors. The 25-year-old, who played collegiately at Arizona State, won once this season and posted five additional top-5 finishes.
Xiaowen Yin (courtesy Epson Tour)
At 17, Xiaowen Yin is the youngest player to earn her LPGA card through the Epson Tour. The Chinese native turns 18 in December. Yin won back-to-back events on the Epson Tour over the summer en route to securing her card. She jokes that her father is her good luck charm as she won the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship the first week he came out to watch. Her highest World Amateur Golf Ranking was seventh.
Lucy Li of the USA tees off on the first hole during the first round of the ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics at Massereene Golf Club on August 11, 2022 in Galgorm, Co Antrim, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Oisin Keniry/Getty Images)
Former child prodigy Lucy Li made history when she competed in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at age 11….
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